2004 June Movies

Based on the acclaimed best seller by Nicholas Sparks and directed by Nick Cassavetes (John Q), The Notebook is an epic love story starring Academy Award nominees James Garner, Gena Rowlands and Joan Allen opposite young breakout actors Ryan Gosling (The Believer) and Rachel McAdams. As a man (Garner) reads from a faded notebook to the woman (Rowlands) he regularly visits, his words bring to life the story of a couple (Gosling and McAdams) who are separated by World War II, then passionately reunited 7 years later, after they have taken different paths. Though her memory has faded, his words give her the chance to relive her turbulent youth and the unforgettable love they shared. The Notebook is produced by Academy Award winner Mark Johnson (Rain Man).

Harry Potter and his friends Ron and Hermione return as teenagers to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for their third year of study, where they delve into the mystery surrounding an escaped prisoner who poses a dangerous threat to the young wizard. Gary Oldman plays Sirius Black, the eponymous prisoner whose escape is thought to pose a great threat to Harry Potter; Michael Gambon plays the role of Professor Dumbledore, Hogwarts' venerable headmaster; Timothy Spall portrays Peter Pettigrew, an old friend of Harry's father, James Potter, from their days at Hogwarts; David Thewlis plays Professor Lupin, the new Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor who harbors a mysterious secret; Pam Ferris plays Harry's overbearing Aunt Marge; and Paul Whitehouse portrays Sir Caddogan, a Knight who becomes the temporary guardian of Gryffindor Tower.

In the hilarious comedy "White Chicks," Shawn and Marlon Wayans play two ambitious but unlucky FBI agents who go deep undercover as female, high society debutantes to infiltrate the sophisticated world of the Hamptons to investigate a kidnapping ring.

From Preston, Idaho comes Napoleon Dynamite (Heder), a new kind of hero complete with a tight red 'fro, some sweet moon boots, and skills that can't be topped. Napoleon lives with his Grandma (Martin) and his 30-year-old, unemployed brother Kip (Ruell), who spends his days looking for love in internet chat rooms. When Grandma hits the road on her quad runner, Napoleon and Kip's meddling Uncle Rico (Gries) comes to town to stay with them and ruin their lives. Napoleon is left to his own devices to impress the chicks at school and help his new best friend Pedro (Ramirez) win the election for Student Body President against the stuck-up Summer Wheatley (Duff); all the while making sure to feed Grandma's pet llama Tina, and avoiding association with Uncle Rico and the herbal breast enhancers he sells door to door. Napoleon and Pedro put their skills and knowledge of piñatas, cows and drawing to good use, but it is a surprise talent that leads the two to triumph in the end.

"The Terminal" tells the story of Viktor Navorski (Tom Hanks), a visitor to New York from Eastern Europe, whose homeland erupts in a fiery coup while he is in the air en route to America. Stranded at Kennedy Airport with a passport from nowhere, he is unauthorized to actually enter the United States and must improvise his days and nights in the terminal’s international transit lounge until the war at home is over. As the weeks and months stretch on, Viktor finds the compressed universe of the terminal to be a richly complex world of absurdity, generosity, ambition, amusement, status, serendipity and even romance with a beautiful flight attendant named Amelia (Catherine Zeta-Jones). But Viktor has long worn out his welcome with airport official Frank Dixon, who considers him a bureaucratic glitch, a problem he cannot control but wants desperately to erase.

Two years have passed, and the mild-mannered Peter Parker faces new challenges as he struggles with "the gift and the curse," desperately trying to balance his dual identities as the web-slinging superhero Spider-Man and his life as a college student. Tormented by his secrets, Peter finds that his relationships with all those he holds dear are in danger of unraveling. His life-long yearning for M.J. (Kirsten Dunst) becomes even stronger as he fights the impulse to reveal his secret life and declare his love. His friendship with Harry Osborn (James Franco) is complicated by the young Osborn's bitterness over his father's death and his growing vendetta against Spider-Man. Even Peter's beloved Aunt May (Rosemary Harris), who has fallen on hard times after the death of Uncle Ben, begins to have doubts about her nephew.Peter's life is about to become even more complicated as he encounters a formidable new foe -- Dr. Otto Octavius (Alfred Molina). Peter must use all the powers at his disposal to try to stop this diabolical madman in his octagonal tracks.

Vin Diesel reprises his star-making "Pitch Black" role of enigmatic anti- hero Richard B. Riddick in the new science fiction action-adventure epic, "The Chronicles of Riddick". Riddick has spent the last five years on the move among the forgotten worlds on the outskirts of the galaxy, eluding mercenaries bent on collecting the price on his head. Now, the fugitive finds himself on planet Helion, home to a progressive multicultural society, which has been invaded by the Lord Marshal (Feore), a zealot who targets humans for subjugation with his army of warriors known as Necromongers. Exiled to a subterranean prison where extremes of temperature range from arctic nights to volcanic days, Riddick encounters Kyra (Davalos), the lone survivor from an earlier chapter in his life. His efforts to free himself and Kyra lead him to the Necromonger command ship, where he is pitted against the Lord Marshal in an apocalyptic battle with possibly the fate of all beings-both living and dead-hanging in the balance.

This remake based on a novel takes place when a young couple move to an upper-class suburb. When Joanna (Kidman) starts to notice that all the neighborhood wives are bland housewives that seem to enjoy doing the housework she starts to investigate. Unfortunately for her she soon finds out that the men of the neighborhood have replaced their wives with subservient cyborg copies.

In this highly inventive take on Verne's classic, Passepartout (Chan) must make it to China in order to return a valuable jade Buddha that was stolen from his family's village. He seeks refuge with an eccentric London inventor, Phineas Fogg (Coogan), who puts his reputation, fortune, and career on the line in a daring bet to make it around the world in eighty days. Joining them is Monique (De France), a young French artist who decides that a trip around the world would provide new inspiration. Opposing the group is Lord Kelvin (Broadbent), who's wagered his position as head of the Royal Academy of Science against their journey's success. Their incredible adventure spans many colorful and exotic lands from historic London to Paris, Turkey, India, China, across the Great Seas, to a burgeoning United States, and more. Along the way, the group encounters an eclectic assortment of characters including Queen Victoria (Bates), a Scotland Yard Sergeant (Cleese), a hot air balloon engineer (Branson), a Turkish Prince (Schwarzenegger), an eccentric inventor (Schneider), the Wright Brothers (Owen and Luke Wilson), and many other international star cameos.